A DRUG addicted shoplifter who broke a shop worker’s arm has been locked up and ordered to pay her victim compensation.

Paula Harman lashed out at the Lidl worker when she was spotted stuffing stolen items in her bags in the Hartlepool store in December last year.

The 47-year-old punched the worker in the arm and swung her handbag at him two or three times causing a fracture to his arm, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Uzma Khan, prosecuting, said Harman was also breach of a two-year suspended jail sentence for supplying Class A drugs to an undercover police officer.

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The defendant was also facing a public order charge after threatening a neighbour with a scraper blade while shouting - ‘I will f***ing kill you, who do you think you are? I will cut your f***ing throat’ in June last year.

Miss Khan said when she was arrested Harman was in possession of heroin. In November, the defendant was arrested again and this time she was carrying a quantity of amphetamine.

Dealing with the shoplifting offence, Ms Khan added: “The defendant was seen concealing items in her handbag and shopping bag, the staff member confronted her and asked to look in her back but she refused.

“She had previously been banned from the store and refused to show the contents before becoming abusive – shouting and swearing. She punched him and swung her handbag at him two to three times.

Harman, of Holdforth Court, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to breach of a suspended jail sentence, possession of Class A and B drugs, actual bodily harm assault, theft, and a public order offence.

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Adam Keenaghan, defending, said that drugs had wrecked Harman’s life after she gained GCSE qualifications at school and trained as a hairdresser.

He said she was shoplifting to survive and to fund her drug addiction after her benefits had been stopped.

Judge Howard Crowson activated 18-months of the suspended sentence for drug dealing and added an additional two-month sentence for the other offences.

He said: “You have a long record mainly for shop thefts and there is some drug offending which, I have no doubt, explains all the other offending.”

Harman was also ordered to pay £156 in compensation to the shop worker.

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